New Hampshire Responds To Turmoil In Charlottesville

After the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, people in this region are looking more closely at local racist and anti-Semitic groups: their statements, their plans, and what may happen next. We'll talk about those issues and gauge the overall New Hampshire reaction to what happened this weekend.

Listen

Listening...

/

57:23

Listen to the conversation.

GUESTS:

Rabbi Edward Boraz - Michael Steinberg '61 Rabbi of Dartmouth College Hillel and Associate Chaplain of Dartmouth College. Rabbi Boraz also serves as the Rabbi for Congregation Kol Haemek: the Upper Valley Jewish Community in Hanover.

The Rt. Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld - Bishop of the Episcopal Church of NH.

Reverend Eric Jackson - Pastor at Brookside Congregational Church in Manchester. He is also president of the Greater Manchester NAACP.

Dottie Morris - Associate Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Equity at Keene State College.

Buzz Scherr - Professor of Law and Chair of the International Criminal Law and Justice Programs at UNH School of Law.

The panelists reflected on their role as faith leaders as they considered the turmoil in Charlottesville, especially in a state that is routinely ranked as one of the least religious:

“ …. how do we uphold the dignity of every human being? How do we seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves? This is sort of the bedrock of our ethos as a church. And so we find ourselves coming back to this and so it becomes a theological spiritual issue. I'm not a political scientist. I'm not a sociologist. So I find that we have to summon the courage to have these conversations about why we are so afraid. What is the source of our fear … because I think fear is the close cousin of hatred.” The Right Reverend A. Robert Hirschfeld

“I've spoken at rallies and protests since I've been here serving in New Hampshire, and I felt that there are a lot of people who don't go to church, who do attend the vigils, who will attend rallies, and will be out on the front lines. And I find them to be some of the best listeners out there, because they listen to every word and hold onto it and evaluate.” Reverend Eric Jackson

“…one of the core things in Judaism is this notion, number one, of human dignity - and that transcends the Jewish people, that transcends, that embraces, all of humankind. …This notion of justice, that's a core value within our faith tradition as it is in all faith traditions. … And finally that the idea is not to just sit in a synagogue and pray, but to go out and actually do something about it, to be committed to social justice to making the world a better place.” Rabbi Edward Boraz

Related Content

People across New Hampshire gathered yesterday at vigils and other events to respond to the violence in Charlottesville this weekend. NHPR’s Casey McDermott attended an interfaith service in Concord last night, and she brings back this audio postcard.

Gov. Chris Sununu condemned the violence that broke out at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville this weekend and said “it’s appalling to [him] that in the year 2017 we're even having this conversation.”